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Nine years and 63 poems later, librarian and poet Wendy DeGroat has completed her book on the life of Grace Arents, a philanthropist who transformed Richmond.
With the wealth she inherited from her uncle, Lewis Ginter, in the late 1800s, Arents embarked on projects that would improve the lives of many in the community. She founded St. Andrew’s School, opened Richmond’s first public library, and funded the development of parks, playgrounds, and public housing around the city.
But while Arents’ life was one of generosity, it was also one of obscurity. She was a private woman who gave quietly. This quality of Arents’ life caught the attention of DeGroat in 2009 after she read “The Invisible Philanthropist,” an article about Arents written by Richmond magazine Senior Writer Harry Kollatz Jr.
DeGroat, a Henrico resident, noticed many connections between Arents’ life and her own, including their shared passion for books, education, faith and advocacy. Arents also had what she referred to as a “female companion,” like DeGroat.
With hopes of bringing to light the complexity and emotional elements of Arents’ life, DeGroat set out to tell Arents’ story through poetry.
“Wendy is conducting a skillful and nuanced poetic turn in terms of introducing to the world this particular person,” Kollatz Jr. said. “She is giving Grace a voice and in a way, giving back her voice.”
DeGroat tells Arents’ story through documentary poetry, a style that is at the intersection of poetry, historical fiction, and biography, she said. “It allows me to invent likely details and give some emotional life to the story where there is not documentation. It allows me to imagine into the gaps but stay grounded in the historical facts.”
Studying newspaper articles, Arents’ travel diaries, and other archival materials, DeGroat created a list of recurring nouns, adjectives, verbs and phrases to form a lexicon for Arents. This lexicon helped DeGroat write the poems that are told in Arents’ voice.
“She’s the perfect voice for Grace,” Patty Parks, the Community Outreach and Engagement librarian at Richmond Public Libraries said. “I think she believes in the things that Grace did. She is a librarian who loves books and the Word. And she is an activist and an advocate for everyone’s rights.”
DeGroat, who will speak and serve as a moderator at the 2018 James River Writers Conference Oct. 14, wrote other poems for the book in her own voice, giving readers insight into her personal journey writing, she said.
“The writer has to take the same risks that they’ve made the subject take,” DeGroat said. “I’ve given her voice and her emotions going through conflicts. So poems in my own voice are a chance to confront questions I make her confront. They put more of me on the page but I think they add a layer of emotional resonance to the book and bring it into contemporary relief.”
It wasn’t until 2014 that DeGroat said she wrote the first “successful” poem of the collection called “Coopering Lesson, c.1855,” inspired by Arents’ father’s work as a cooper, or barrel-maker. With this breakthrough, DeGroat continued to write poems for the book over the few weeks she spent each summer at the Wellspring House in Ashfield, Massachusetts.
A few months after writing “Coopering Lesson, c. 1855,” DeGroat was driving to the Wellspring House when she spotted a round barn in Hancock Shaker Village. Glancing at the barn in her rearview mirror, she decided to turn back to go take a look. Lo and behold, DeGroat entered to find a coopering workshop, where she met a man who guided her through the motions of the process.
“It was a wonderful affirmation from the universe that I was on the right track,” DeGroat said.
Another influential moment in her writing journey was June of this year when DeGroat received a fortune cookie with a fortune that read, “a goal is a dream with a deadline.” She pinned the fortune under a picture she had of Arents, and set a goal to finish the book. With that goal achieved, DeGroat now is in the process of getting it published.
Arents’ story has left a personal mark on DeGroat, who has often used her poetry to advocate for social justice issues such as feminism, marriage equality, and racial equality.
“I think her story is one of tenacity, resilience, love, and a lifetime commitment to vision informed by faith,” DeGroat said. “Grace’s story helps me to stay motivated in changing the things in society that I wish were different and it encourages me to keep working and doing what I can with the things I’ve been given – a pen and poetry – to make the difference I can make.”
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The James River Writers Conference will take place Oct. 13-14 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. DeGroat will lead a workshop titled “Beyond Google: Web Treasures for Writers.” For details, visit https://jamesriverwriters.org/annual-writers-conference/.
DeGroat also will read some of her poetry during a poetry reading at Blue Bee Cider in Scott's Addition Oct. 13 at 5:30 p.m. The event (free and open to the public) also will feature four other readers.